Today’s Fresh iPhone apps run a gamut of different uses. Up first is Barcodas, an interesting little app that scans bar codes and turns them into music, followed by an app that lets University of Phoenix students keep up with classroom discussions and announcements. Rounding out the offerings is CloudTalk Messenger, a communications app that […]

Today’s Fresh iPhone apps run a gamut of different uses. Up first is Barcodas, an interesting little app that scans bar codes and turns them into music, followed by an app that lets University of Phoenix students keep up with classroom discussions and announcements. Rounding out the offerings is CloudTalk Messenger, a communications app that combines video, voice and text.

Barcodas (iPhone, iPad 2) $0.99

There are some apps in the iTunes App Store that might not be strictly useful, but they are kind of interesting. Barcodas is one such app — it lets you use your iOS device’s camera as a bar code scanner, but instead of using the codes to do things like look up products, it instead translates the codes into music.

Barcodas will have you scanning codes all over your house to see what kinds of tunes they produce. You can set the scale for your scan to determine generally how it will sound, but each Barcodas tune is unique. You can also share your favorite codes over the Internet on Facebook and by email with friends.

University of Phoenix Mobile (iPhone, iPad) Free

Attention University of Phoenix students: you can get an online version of your classroom right in your pocket with the school’s new iOS app, University of Phoenix Mobile. It’s designed to help students keep organized with their other life obligations by providing a remote way of participating in classroom discussions and sending them push notifications.

University of Phoenix Mobile lets you engage with other students and faculty by creating and responding to discussion threads from within the app for your class. It also notifies when certain events take place, like the posting of grades or discussions posted by faculty. The app is a great way to keep up with class announcements and to track your participation in discussions, as well.

CloudTalk Messenger update (iPhone, iPad) Free

CloudTalk is designed to make messaging easy with your friends and contacts. The app combines the ability to send text messages, photos, videos and voice messages to your contacts, mixing all those forms of communication into conversations so you can switch between them freely.

You don’t just have to have friends who use CloudTalk Messenger. You can also start or join public conversations with people in your area and meet new users. CloudTalk also supports push notifications, so you can receive messages even when you don’t have the app open.

Phil Hornshaw is a freelance writer, editor and author living in Los Angeles, dividing his time between playing video games, playing video games on his cell phone, and writing about playing video games. He’s also the co-author of So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Time Travel, which attempts to mix time travel pop culture with some semblance of science, as well as tips on the appropriate means of riding dinosaurs. Check out his Google+ profile.